Photographer for El Diario gunned down

A photography intern for El Diario de Juárez newspaper was shot and killed Thursday, September 16, 2010, outside the Rio Grande Mall, between López Mateos and Triunfo de la República Ave., in north Juárez.

JUAREZ -- A photography intern of Juárez's largest daily newspaper was killed and another intern injured in an attack Thursday afternoon outside a busy mall.

Still wearing press badges and with their equipment handy, Luis Carlos Santiago, 21, and fellow intern Carlos Manuel Sánchez had just learned camera tricks at a workshop. They were about to get a bite to eat.

Instead, Santiago was riddled with bullets about 2:30 p.m. as he was driving a silver Nissan sedan in the parking lot of the Río Grande Mall. The mall is in the busy commercial Triunfo de la República Avenue area in north Juárez

Sánchez, who was sitting on the passenger side, was shot four times. Witnesses said he got out of the car and ran toward the mall before he collapsed. He was sent to the hospital with critical injuries but was later reported in stable condition.

As Santiago's sisters and relatives arrived at the crime scene, they screamed, "But why? Why?" They broke into tears and kneeled on the pavement.

It was just not another murder scene for fellow El Diario reporters and photographers. Some were crying and others were perplexed by the bloody scene.

Santiago was a starting photographer who had been at El Diario about six months.

Advertisement

Other El Diario friends who did not want to be identified, fearing retaliation, said Santiago was a good young man.

"He was always joking," a fellow intern said.

Although some friends and co-workers said Thursday they did not believe Santiago was targeted because of his job, El Diario Editor Pedro Torres said it was an attack against journalism as a profession.

"We do see it as an attack against El Diario, an attack against the ones who work here," he said.

Torres said Santiago was an energetic reporter eager to work.

"To see his aspirations shatter like that is very sad," he said.

Torres said he will demand authorities thoroughly investigate the fatal shooting. He said evidence should lead police to the guilty party because it happened in a public place outside a mall where witnesses watched and security cameras were in place.

"This event is marking a September 16 of mourning," Torres said. "For us, it won't be a day to celebrate anymore."

Sept. 16 is the Mexican Independence Day, one of the most important national holidays in the country.

A representative of the journalists association of Juárez said media workers are more vulnerable to attacks.

"It is an outrage against the freedom of the press," said Adrián Ventura, president of the association. "After this episode, it is clear now that journalists walk on the razor's edge."

Gustavo Reveles Acosta, president of the El Paso Press Club and a reporter for the El Paso Times, said the killing showcases the dangers many journalists face.

"Juárez has become a dangerous place for journalists, and the public should not tolerate threats to an industry that aims to support the people's right to know," Reveles said in a statement for the press club.

"We hope the authorities work diligently to find those responsible for this crime. Doing so could send a strong message that the murder of journalists covering a story is not condoned."

The last time a journalist was slain in Juárez was in November 2008.

Armando Rodríguez was killed as he left his home in Juárez to take his daughter to school. He covered the police beat for El Diario and was threatened several times before he was slain.

Four journalists were kidnapped in the northern state of Coahuila in Mexico in late July. One of them, Alejandro Hernández Pacheco, is seeking asylum in El Paso.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 30 journalists have disappeared or been killed in Mexico since 2006.

According to the International Press Institute, 10 journalists had been killed in Mexico through the end of August, making it the most deadly country for journalists in the world, followed by Honduras and Pakistan.

"We are shocked by this brutal attack against our colleagues," Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas, said in a statement. "We urge President Felipe Calderón to make the protection of free expression a priority of his national agenda."

A CPJ delegation will meet with Calderón on Wednesday to discuss threats against the press.

About 28,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since Calderón declared a war on drug cartels and began deploying thousands of soldiers and federal police nationwide.

Juárez has seen the worst. About 6,400 people have been killed in the border city since 2008 when the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels began battling over turf.